What do we know about the origin of our red beds[1]
, the beautiful reddish coloured rocks you see everywhere on the Colorado
Plateau in the USA and in many other places ? These well known red beds
occur on all continents and they were formed in various
geological periods . The oldest are Proterozoic ( 1.5 billion years) and
the most recent ones are of Miocene age (6 million years). They are red by fine
disseminated hematite iron oxide impregnating their clay minerals. They can be
fine grained clay stones , siltstones, sandstones and conglomerates or
even lime stones. Unfortunately, there is no place on Earth where
we can see them being formed so that all theories about their
origin are in fact based on speculation. Present tropical soils are often
red, but never over thousands of meters thick as in the old formations. In
tropical countries red laterites composed of iron oxide are common,
but they were never seen in the old red beds. So how were they formed
? The red Martian deposits show much similarity with the
terrestrial red beds, which adds to the riddle .

The standard opinion about
their origin

For various reasons they are always considered of continental
origin, deposited as continental alluvium deposited as dunes,
by flash floods, braded rivers or as alluvial fans on slopes . The
fine grained red beds are interpreted as “playa” deposits, which are common in
the low flat lands in deserts. The scarcity of typical marine vestiges and the
occurrence of pollen and other vegetative matter are another reason for
excluding a marine origin. Only during the Cretaceous period we find red beds
with many marine fossils. Are these reasons enough for classifying most
of them as of continental ? In fact there is room for many
objections, with which most geologists are familiar.

The objections
against a continental origin

How come that the huge evaporite accumulations,
which are commonly associated with red beds , are considered of marine origin
by nearly all ? The typical continental evaporites like trona etc. should be
abundant, but they were never described in the old red beds.
Laterally and vertically they can transit into typical marine
lime stones and marls without intermediate beach
deposits. So they show no transition between the
continental and the marine environment.( Chinle formation Colorado
Plateau ). They are usually very well stratified like a “layer cake” with
layers spreading over tens of kilometres or more. This type of bedding is
uncommon on the present continents.

Could they all be in
fact tidal flat deposits ?

This seems hardly to make any sense, as
we know the present tidal flats as clay, silt and sand deposits on most deltas.
They are never red and always full of marine or littoral life, which we
do not see in the old red beds. Is it possible, that marine life was
absent when the red beds were deposited.? Only facies and extensive
bedding are similar to present tidal deposits. New astronomic information
may give an explanation

Were the tides in the past
different from today ?

So far practically no
research was done along these lines by the geologists. They took for granted,
that the tides were always the same as the present ones. However recent
astronomic studies on the Moon orbit came up with the conclusion, that
the orbit must have been strongly eccentric during various periods in the
geological past (Garrick-Bethel
et al.[4]). Resonance between orbits of Venus and Jupiter are considered to have been the cause which could explain the eccentricity increase of the Moon orbit. No signs of more recent repetitions of this phenomena have been mentioned so far. A more eccentric orbit of the Moon involves that during part of
the month the moon was much closer to the Earth than today and in part much
farther away. If their conclusions are right, then very strong tides alternated
with very weak tides during certain epochs. If the red beds
are the vestiges of giant tides, it is not a coincidence, that red bed
periods generally showed also strong volcanic activity, as strong tidal waves
distorted also the Earth crust. These periods are considered to show a frequency between 20 an 30 MY.

Can we see vestiges
of giant tides in the past?

As a matter of fact there are many signs of very
frequent tsunami like waves in the past. The first effect of the violent
tidal inflow would have been a very destructive abrasion , flattening out
the relief of large areas on the planet and covering them with very
thick siliciclastic (sandy) sediments like we know them from the red beds. The
huge Permian abrasion and the following Triassic plane of the West
European basin going from Warsaw to London, and the Karroo basin in South Africa are good
examples. All continents show similar basins considered as
“continental” . But how come, that the old sediments
are red ? The answer could be, that the present
tidal inflows are weak and compatible with life, but daily
tidal waves of tens of meters high are incompatible with life, so
that no organic matter could develop to create a reducing environment as we see
everywhere today. The violent tides must have made the oceans muddy
over vast areas so that no sunlight could penetrate in
the surrounding oceans, explaining the absence of all marine
life. The most severe extinction of marine life (95 %)
happened during the Permo-Triassic period, which is represented by
red beds all over the Planet. As a result of the absence of
life, the sediments were deposited under strong oxidizing
conditions . Moreover as new seawater invaded
daily the continents over very large distances, conditions were
favourable for the formation of brines and evaporites. Microscopic work
by various sedimentologists on red bed drill cores deep under
the North Sea, and also some paleo-magnetic
studies have shown, that the iron oxides of hematite (Wyles
[6]) were authigenic and formed in depth long after
sedimentation. Glennie et al.[5] Later studies on hematite
formation showed, that the presence of brines, oxygen and a higher
temperature by burial are enough for dissolving all ferrous iron from the
iron containing minerals of the sediments. Under these conditions hematite
becomes soluble and crystallizes when temperature decreases , when,
after deep burial, the sediments came nearer the surface, producing
the typical red colour by precipitation of hematite. This process explains also why we never see
any enrichment of iron in red beds. Some palaeomagnetic studies showed, that hematite
formed over a very long period, long after sedimentation, which is in agreement with the
fore going ..(Beck, M.E. et al., [2])

Are there more arguments for
giant tidal waves in the past?

Every geologist knows, that in the past huge
volumes of sediments were deposited on the continents (about 60 % of all
sediments are lying on the continents), and that today sediments accumulate
mostly on the border of the continents in the well known present deltas . The
volumes of the latter are hundreds of times smaller than the ones on the
continental basins of which some can reach a stunning
volume of 15 million cubic kilometres. (Cambrian-Ordovician of North Africa ) . The deltas as we know them today are
rare in older formations. Today practically no sediments are formed on the
continents, so it can be assumed that on the continents other much more violent phenomena
were active in the past.

Aeolian deposits or sand waves
?

Most large flat bedded old sandstones are
generally considered of aeolian origin in spite of the absence of dune crests,
as we see them in the present deserts. They show very often
unidirectional cross bedding (see figure above) interpreted as wind
blowing with a constant speed over very large epochs in the same
direction. During the sixties and the seventies there was a strong
debate about the origin of these beds of the Navajo sandstones, as some
geologist invoked sand waves, which are common in shallow seas with
strong tides , as a more probable origin .( Freeman and Visher [3]) In fact their constant bedding ,
their absence of crests , the constant angle of their cross
bedding and the very little change over long periods in the direction of
he cross bedding, fit perfectly with the facies of present
marine sand waves in a tidal environment.

Alluvial or marine
conglomerates ?

Though there is much confusion between the two, there
is a big difference between the conglomerates, which are very common in
the old formations and the present ones which we see on the
continents. In the old ones the pebbles are mostly matrix supported
and hardly touching each other and spread over very wide
areas , whereas the present river deposits are always
channelled and show pebbles often lying on top of each other with
very little matrix. The old ones show a striking similarity with the
recent ones left by the tsunamis, or with the pebbles lying on the bottom
of the English Channel or deposited by the Scabland floods in the State of Washington. They
always represent the result of large floods over wide areas.
as we can expect in case of giant tides.

Detrital feldspars

Present alluvium does not show
the presence of detrital feldspars. They
are too fragile. They are most of the time transformed into clays in
most soils before entering the streams. In case of the
absence of vegetation in deserts they may enter
into the alluvial system, but they are then destructed very quickly
during repeated transport and we never see them in deltas . How do we explain their very common
occurrence in the red beds ? There can be no doubt, that they can only be
deposited very quickly after erosion and after limited
transport. Only violent erosion or abrasion, unknown today, can
be the origin, so that the huge tidal waves may
have been the answer.

Other consequences

If ever this violent
past is accepted, then we may have another interpretation for
several of the major extinction periods of the past. The
worst one between the Permian and the Triassic, both periods of abundant
red beds, wiped out as much as 95 % of all marine life.The amazing development of very large hind legs and
long necks and their over all gigantic size of many species
of dinosaurs, could also have been their
Darwinistic defence against frequent major floods. Their
grave yards show nearly always burial by floods. It is perhaps no coincidence, that most of the surviving reptiles can swim or fly. It is possible that these floods where also responsible for their extinction?

Conclusion

It is understood, rather arbitrarily, by most
sedimentologists, that tides have never changed during the history of the
planet, in spite of the proof, that at present the Moon distance from the Earth
increases by a few centimetres per year. But since recent work on the history
of the orbit of the Moon indicates major variations in the past, there
is plenty of reason for reflection about the possible
role of tides, much more violent during certain periods in the past than
today and its possible role on abrasion, sedimentation
and life on our planet . Since at present tides are
mostly weak but vary strongly geographically, much stronger
tides must have changed enormously in time and space. The
varying changes in the distances between continents must have
contributed also to strong variations in tidal intensity by
resonance. They may complicate even more the
study of the history of our planet. If these considerations are
taken into account as a serious possibility, it is felt that
there is still a very wide domain for additional research.